Water problem: Shah urges federal govt to share cost of K-IV project

Vawda assures CM of taking up the issue with PM

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah urged the federal government to immediately share the escalating cost of K-IV project so that it could be completed in time.

This he said on Monday while talking to Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda at Chief Minister House. The meeting was attended by Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani and others. The CM said that the K-IV project phase-I of 260 MGD was most important for the city. “When its first phase infrastructure is completed it would help in the completion of the other two phases,” he said and added that the federal government must bear 50% of the cost.

Shah said that the cost of the project was likely to be around Rs75 billion, but experts were working to calculate the final estimates. He offered that the federal government could conduct its audit whenever it wanted to do so.

Vawda said that he would talk to the prime minister and assured the matter would be resolved. “We have discussed this issue in our meetings with prime minister informally but formally it would be discussed very soon,” he said. The CM said that he would need the support of the federal water minister to get additional water approved for K-IV. “It has been our stance that people from all over Pakistan live in Karachi, therefore the provincial governments must share a little portion of their water for this city,” he said and Vawda assured Shah that he would talk to provincial governments for this purpose. Shah said that implementation of water accord was another important issue.  He said that the matter had been taken up in the CCI meeting and therefore the ministry of water resources and Indus River System Authority should work to resolve it.

French envoy calls on CM

The Ambassador of France, Dr Marc Barety, called on the CM and discussed different investment opportunities in the province.

Shah said that the provincial government has decided to reconstruct the drainage system of the city. “This system is very old and is either in a dilapidated condition or has capacity issues, therefore construction of a new one is the need of the hour,” he said and urged the ambassador to engage French firms  to work with provincial government using public-private partnership model. The ambassador said that the French were jointly financing Red Line BRT project and they would love to invest in other projects as well. Desalination plant, water supply system, agriculture, wind energy and grid system were also discussed.

The CM said that he had recently approved formation of a `grid company’ so that renewable energy produced could be connected with the national grid. “The French firms can work with us in the establishment of grid system,” he offered. The ambassador assured the CM that he would invite state and private firms to work with Sindh government. Shah nominated Planning and Development Chairperson Mohammad Waseem to coordinate with French Embassy for moving forward in investment assignment.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2018.